The head of the National Urban League is calling on the Senate Commerce Committee to favorably report Democrat Gigi Sohn’s Federal Communications Commission nomination to the full Senate and to work actively for a vote in that body.

According to a copy of the letter, which was addressed to committee chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), National Urban League president Marc Morial said Sohn would bring decades of experience to the task of closing the digital divide, which has only widened during COVID-19.

The League has called on the FCC to tackle the divide through “broadband buildout, an affordable broadband and devices benefit, digital education, improved utilization of the internet for critical government services and increased opportunities for communities of color to benefit from the economic prosperity of this digital age.”

Morial said Sohn has demonstrated a commitment to equity that will benefit communities of color and consumers in general. “[S]he has expressed interest in boosting media diversity and ownership, including through expansion of the broadcast incubator program beyond radio and via a reevaluation of the FCC’s minority ownership rules as part of its 2022 Quadrennial Review,” he told the legislators.

The FCC is currently short one commissioner, the Democratic seat for which Sohn has been nominated and which would give chair Jessica Rosenworcel the majority she needs to tackle partisan issues such as net neutrality rules and potential broadcast reregulation. 

“At a time when the United States has committed $65 billion to expanding affordable broadband access and programs, including the Affordable Connectivity Program, we need a full and active commission that is committed to ensuring that this funding is implemented equitably and with informed guidance from a broad range of stakeholders,” Morial said, adding, "The National Urban League sincerely urges you to advance Sohn’s nomination quickly through the Senate."

Cantwell has signaled she wants to firm up a date for a vote on Sohn by the end of this week.

At press time no vote had been scheduled. The committee’s website listed receipt of Sohn’s nomination on January 4 as the last action taken on the matter. Her nomination had to be resubmitted because the committee took no action on it before the end of last year.

Charter Communications said it will invest $10 million in a partnership with the National Urban League and the National Action Network to support Black and minority-owned businesses in underserved communities.

Charter’s Spectrum Community Investment Fund will invest $3 million in the National Urban League’s Urban Empowerment Fund, which will make individual loans to minority-owned small businesses. In addition, Charter will invest another $3 million in low-interest loans directly to community development investment funds (CDFIs), under the direction of the National Action Network.

Charter also will provide $3.5 million in PSA value to promote its partners’ Spectrum Community Investment Fund opportunities, and will contribute a $500,000 capacity grant to the National Urban League for revitalizing its CDFI platform including funding for staffing, infrastructure, and operations.

“In all communities, small business ownership and growth are fundamental to developing and sustaining economic power, which is critical to their long-term success,” Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a press release. “Building on our valued partnerships with the National Urban League and National Action Network, these investments will support small diverse-owned businesses through access to much-needed low-interest capital and help build thriving communities across the country.”

As the Urban League’s small business lending subsidiary, the Urban Empowerment Fund provides loans and coaching to minority-owned businesses that provide jobs and revenue to economically distressed areas and other underserved communities.

"Small Black-owned businesses, a primary economic driver in Black neighborhoods, are less likely to be approved for loans than their White-owned counterparts, and when they are approved, they receive smaller amounts and at higher interest rates,” said National Urban League CEO Marc H. Morial in a press release. “As we face the most daunting economic landscape since the Great Depression, committed and enlightened partners like Charter are more valued than ever before. Charter is helping the National Urban League build stronger and more stable communities that create opportunity for prosperity."

Charter launched the Loan Fund in February, committing to invest an initial $10 million in capital by the end of 2021 by making low-interest loans through CDFIs to small businesses whose goods and services help meet core needs in underserved communities within Charter’s 41-state operating footprint. With the addition of the investment partnerships with the Urban League and NAN, Charter’s Loan Fund commitment has increased to $13 million, and the Urban Empowerment Fund investment represents the fourth made by the Loan Fund in the past four months. Charter previously announced $1 million investments in Pursuit Community Finance in New York, PeopleFund in Texas, and the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI) in Ohio. Over the next year, the Loan Fund expects to invest an additional $4 million across CDFIs in California, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin, in addition to the $3 million into CDFIs as directed by NAN.

In addition to the loans, each CDFI receives a grant to fund technical assistance programs and professional training for small businesses. These grants have recently been made to provide support to businesses impacted by COVID-19.

“In order to achieve the economic equality we want to see, we need to support our Black businesses and our Black entrepreneurs,” said NAN founder Reverend Al Sharpton in a press release. “For too long, our talented Black communities have been deprived of low interest loans, capital and a myriad of resources to help Black businesses thrive and prosper, a reality that has lasted decades inhibiting us from playing and competing in a level playing field. This partnership is one more step to address the systemic scarcity in our communities and to underscore much needed investment to turn the tide of inequity.”

News of the investment comes on the same day that Comcast settled a $20 billion lawsuit brought by Entertainment Studios chairman and CEO Byron Allen and the National Association of African American Owned Media in 2015, claiming Comcast conspired to keep African American owned networks off its systems. Allen has a similar active $10 billion suit against Charter, filed in 2016, that claims carriage discrimination.   

New York -- Charter Communications Friday pledged to create a chief diversity officer and add more minorities to its board of directors as part of a memorandum of understanding it signed with a dozen civic organizations serving communities of color. 

As part of the MOU, Charter – which is waiting on the FCC to approve its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable and, in some quarters, facing off against skepticism from programming companies – has agreed to appoint an African-American, Asian-American/Pacific-Islander and one Hispanic American to its newly formed board of directors once the merger is complete. Charter also said it will appoint a chief diversity officer to head its diversity and inclusion efforts.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge -- who Friday, in a symbolic ceremony on Dr. Martin Luther King’s actual birth date, signed the MOU along with leaders from the Action Network, the National Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Council Of La Raza -- told Multichannel News that the company is proud of its diversity efforts but pledges to do more the deal is complete, making it the second-biggest U.S. TV provider. 

“While we are committed to [diversity] today, we will be a much bigger, more high-profile kind of organization so we will make a public commitment to diversity with binding obligations on us,” Rutledge said.

The Action Network head the Rev. Al Sharpton praised Rutledge and Charter’s commitment to diversity, but said he and the other organizations will keep a close eye on whether the company keeps its word.

“This is an historic agreement and it will set a precedent as to what must happen in the media world as we continue to see these mergers,” Sharpton told Multichannel News. “We intend to hold them to it.” 

The full list of diversity groups signing the MOU include the National Urban League, National Action Network, National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, SER-National, Hispanic Federation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA), Media Action Network for Asian Americans, East West Players, and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

 For more from Rutledge, Sharpton and the event, including video, see Multichannel News and multichannel.com on Tuesday (following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday).